The company hopes to hire more people, Haitao Wang, head of the Swiss subsidiary, said on Friday in an interview with the French-western business newspaper L’Agefi. Huawei Switzerland wants to increase the number of jobs by 50 percent already this year, said Wang, who was appointed to his position in April 2017.
This refers to the corporate customer sector without telecom groups, said Huawei Switzerland spokesman Axel Menning on request. This will exceed the mark of 50 jobs this year in this area.
And in the next few years, we are aiming for growth of around 30 percent.
„The smartphone and PC market is growing at an above-average rate,“ Wang continued. Huawei itself has developed from a niche provider to a challenger for the big players. And now the company wants to conquer even the top spot in the market.
Hole phone instead of notch
Huawei is headquartered in Switzerland in Liebefeld in the canton of Bern, not far from Swisscom. The company also has offices in Dübendorf near Zurich and in Lausanne. Overall, Huawei currently employs 350 people in this country.
However, Wang did not want to disclose his company’s sales in Switzerland. He said only that the Chinese group has „successfully established itself in the Swiss market“.
At the beginning of December, Huawei will present its first smartphone with a hole in the side of the display. Of course, the journalist from the French-speaking part of Switzerland, who conducted the interview with the Huawei Switzerland boss, did check it. However, Haitao Wang did not elicit details. He only said that users should be looking forward to innovations.
According to recent reports, the new Huawei smartphone, called Nova 4, has no notch at the top of the screen. The front camera is in the circle on the left, so it is under the safety glass, integrated into the display. Huawei’s Android competitors, most notably Samsung, also soon want to release smartphones without Notch.
That’s why Trump is against Huawei
In its global expansion strategy, the Chinese company could put a stop to the policy. As the Wall Street Journal reported, under President Trump, the US government is making anti-Huawei sympathy with its allies, with reference to national security concerns.
The charge is for possible espionage by so-called backdoors. This refers to a part of a software that allows spies to gain access to computers, bypassing the normal security of access.
The telecommunications sector in New Zealand should therefore not use equipment from Huawei to build the new 5G mobile technology, as announced on Wednesday. A similar ban was issued by the intelligence service in Wellington with reference to these very security risks.
Behind the allegations, which are not substantiated by concrete evidence, are tangible economic interests. Under Trump, the US is on a confrontational course with China. Penalties have also been imposed to strengthen the position of US companies in the home market. The US government does not mention that its own intelligence services – above all the NSA – are spying on friends and foes worldwide, as has been known since whistleblower Edward Snowden since 2013.
Sunrise holds to Huawei
There are also concerns about Chinese technology manufacturers in Germany. Especially behind the scenes, there are some politicians pushing to think about an exclusion from Huawei. In Switzerland, Huawei is now the supplier for the mobile network of Sunrise.
And the Swiss company sticks to the Chinese. „We have no plans to change the technology supplier,“ said company spokeswoman Therese Wenger on Thursday the „Tages-Anzeiger“. And one sees no reason that the Swiss authorities should arrive at a similar assessment as the American regarding the safety of Huawei services.
5G-capable smartphones „from around 2020“ on the slopes
On Tuesday, Sunrise announced that the first standardized 5G network in a ski resort would be commissioned in Laax, Germany. In the media release, a cable car operator is quoted saying that „starting around 2020, the first tourists with 5G-enabled smartphones will probably be able to make their way on the slopes“.
